The present invention relates generally to communications systems, and specifically to systems and methods for providing telephone call management services such as call forwarding and call screening in conjunction with subscribers using mobile telephones.
Call management applications provide subscribers with options for handling incoming telephone calls. For example, a simple call management application might provide a subscriber with the caller""s calling line identification (CLID) on a display, allowing the subscriber to identify the caller and to accept or ignore the call based on the identity of the caller (or based on the lack of call line identification when the caller has blocked the transmission of his/her CLID). Or, the subscriber may program the system to treat different callers differently, based on CLID: the subscriber may block or reject certain calls, and accept others. Alternatively, the subscriber may program the system, using the subscriber""s handset, to provide distinctive rings based upon CLID, and then decide to accept or ignore the call based upon the ring. Or, the system may be programmed to not even ring for certain CLIDs, and instead to transfer calls from those CLIDs directly to voicemail or to a forwarding number.
A menu-based call management system is more flexible than the call management applications described above. FIG. 1 is an illustration of a prior art menu-based call management system, the Call Assistant product of Centigram Communications Corporation. It provides a subscriber with information about a caller, and with a menu of options for handling the incoming call. The caller may record a brief introduction, which is included in the spoken menu. The subscriber may choose to take a call, forward it, reject it, or send it to voicemail. Other options, such as sending a call to voicemail, but eavesdropping on the call and perhaps deciding to pick up the call, may also be available. The prior art system uses a spoken user interfacexe2x80x94that is, voice channels 105xe2x80x94to send a subscriber menu options. For example, the subscriber 107, on picking up the call from the call management system 104, may hear a message such as xe2x80x9cYou have received a call from John Doe. To accept this call, press 1. To reject the call, press 2. To transfer the call to voicemail, press 3. To forward the call, press 4, and then enter the forwarding number.xe2x80x9d Some prior art call management systems have interfaces that accept spoken user commands as well as commands entered using a telephone DTMF keypad.
There are several disadvantages to the prior art call approaches. Merely providing CLID information, based on which the subscriber may ignore, answer or reject calls, gives the subscriber very limited options. In such systems, pre-answer services, such as voice call screening, are not available. If the subscriber has programmed his handset to accept or reject calls, or ring or direct calls to voicemail, based upon CLID information, this information must be re-programmed into each handset used by the subscriber. If the handset is lost, or the settings are inadvertently erased, the programming will be lost as well. The subscriber lacks flexibility to respond differently to a particular CLID at different times or under different circumstances. Furthermore, CLID information may not be available, and even when available is not always sufficient to identify the caller. For example, the caller may be calling from an unknown number, such as a pay phone, or may purposely manipulate his CLID to disguise the origin of the call. Thus, approaches based on CLID alone are somewhat inflexible and are vulnerable to deception and loss of programming information.
The prior art menu-based call management systems also have several shortcomings relating to the spoken user interface. Presenting menu options using a spoken user interface can take a significant amount of time. This uses xe2x80x9cair timexe2x80x9d and network resources, which must be paid for, most likely by either the subscriber or the call management service. Use of air time also impacts the number of users that can be serviced by the network. The air time required, and therefore the cost and use of limited resources, increases with the number of options provided. It would therefore be desirable to provide a user interface which does not require the use of a voice channel.
Furthermore, a spoken user interface can be confusing to the subscriber, since the subscriber must remember the various options available and how to select a desired option. This confusion and difficulty remembering options increases with the number of options provided. On the other hand, providing several options for call handling is clearly useful, providing the subscriber with additional flexibility. It is therefore desirable to provide a user interface which is easy to use and does not require the subscriber to remember the available options.
A spoken user interface is disadvantageous in a noisy environment, where the subscriber may be unable to hear the spoken menu options. It is also disadvantageous in a quiet environment, such as a meeting, where the subscriber may not want to have to listen to a menu and thereby miss what is being said at the meeting and/or may not want to have to speak in order to select an option.
In addition to the disadvantages of the spoken user interface, the prior art menu-based call management systems require the subscriber to respond in a relatively short period of timexe2x80x94before the caller hangs up or is transferred to voicemail. If the subscriber receives a call in a noisy or quiet environment, he may want to take the call or otherwise respond, but may not be able to do so immediately. However, by the time the subscriber leaves the environment, the call will likely have been missed. It is therefore desirable to provide some mechanism to allow the subscriber to respond to the call and either indicate that the call will be returned, or request a return call, without having to speak.
In summary, the present invention is a system and method for providing a subscriber with a display menu of options for handling incoming calls, using a data channel to transmit the menu information. The present invention thus advantageously avoids the use of a voice channel, so that valuable air time is not spent transmitting menu option data. A voice channel is used only if the subscriber chooses to take the call. The present invention also advantageously avoids subscriber confusion and inability to hear selections in a noisy environment by presenting the menu options in a text format. For example, the menu options can be displayed on the display screen in the subscriber""s mobile handset.
The subscriber may respond with a selection of a menu option, and this selection may also be transmitted over a data channel. The use of a data channel to transmit the subscriber""s menu selection advantageously avoids the problem of requiring the user to speak into the handset in an environment where the subscriber prefers not to speak.